Posted by Os Cresson on Oct 19 2005 | Tagged as: Stories and Poems
Not long ago in a place not far from here, there were many people living together but they went into different little buildings to worship. These buildings were quite close together and each one had its own door to go in by. In each of the houses of worship there was a wonderful light mounted [...]
Posted by Os Cresson on Oct 17 2005 | Tagged as: Blogroll
Doctrinally open membership is becoming more accepted by Friends. What is this method of arriving at membership decisions? How does it affect other areas of Quaker life and what does this imply for the future of the Religious Society of Friends?
THE METHOD
Consider a typical Friends meeting. Members gather in silent worship. They cooperate in service [...]
Posted by Os Cresson on Oct 17 2005 | Tagged as: Blogroll
Posted by Workshop for Non-Theistic Friends on Jul 02 2005 | Tagged as: Reports
Friends General Conference, Ithaca, New York, June, 1976
The fifteen to twenty of us who joined this workshop did so out of the need to share ideas with others who are searching for an authentic personal religious framework. The lack of an adequate religious vocabulary which could be used as an alternative to traditional concepts has [...]
Posted by David Boulton on Jun 25 2005 | Tagged as: Blogroll, Republished
In the summer of 1991, at the Sea of Faith conference in Leicester, two intellectual bruisers debated religion and humanism. One was Nicolas Walter: anarchist, peace activist and passionate rationalist. The other was Don Cupitt: elegant, Cambridge, deanish and donnish. Their debate was not the familiar one which had raged for a century, between humanism and Christianity. What was at issue was not humanism but the kind of humanism which might speak to the condition of a postmodern world at the scruff-end of two Christian millennia.
Posted by Os Cresson on Jun 18 2005 | Tagged as: Blogroll
Quakers live in and are part of the environment. Since the early days they followed the conventional practice of separating their faith from the world around them. Later, with the growth of the environmental movement, a second option emerged, that of spiritualizing nature. Then, with the development of nontheism among Friends, naturalizing religion became an [...]
Posted by Os Cresson on Jun 10 2005 | Tagged as: Blogroll
INTRODUCTION
This is a look at the prospects for growth of Quaker nontheism. This is one paper in a series of three. The other two describe the history and current condition of nontheists in the Religious Society of Friends.
What follows below are brief comments about the many tasks before Quaker nontheists as they settle into their [...]
Posted by Os Cresson on Jun 10 2005 | Tagged as: Blogroll
June 16, 2005
INTRODUCTION
This is a look at the roots of Quaker nontheism today. Most of the Quakers mentioned here were not nontheists but they stood up in ways that led to the nontheism of Friends today, or that led to characteristics of today’s Religious Society of Friends that nontheists find helpful. Some of [...]
Posted by Os Cresson on May 04 2005 | Tagged as: Blogroll
Over the years Quakers have gradually set aside elements of doctrine previously thought to be essential, such as the divinity of Christ, the trinity, and immortality. More recently universalist Friends have helped us address the question of whether Quakers must be Christians. I urge the reader to go one step further and consider whether it [...]
Posted by James Riemermann on Apr 18 2005 | Tagged as: Personal Journeys
Presented at Twin Cities Friends Meeting (St. Paul, Minnesota, USA), spring 2000 or so
I received a list of questions to help me prepare for this morning’s talk. I understand it was just intended to help me approach the subject of my spiritual journey, and not as a set of directions.
I considered politely setting the list [...]